Estivate (L’amour de l’étymologie II)

L’amour de l’étymologie is a feature exploring the etymology of English words. Today’s entry: Estivate, from the original æstivate, is a word I came across and wrote down, only to forget about and find years later on a scrap of paper. As you can imagine from the ash (”æ”) in the alternate spelling, estivate is rooted in Latin and came to anglophones by way of French.

The first recorded usage occurred in 1626 in Henry Cockeram’s The English dictionarie, or an interpreter of hard English words. (Strange subtitle, that.) The meaning has remained surprisingly unchanged over the centuries: It’s a verb that means “To spend the summer.” So the next time your parents are going to summer estivate in Cape May, use this more interesting and precise word instead!

Estivate also has a zoological meaning: “To pass the summer in a state of torpor or suspended animation.” So it’s basically the summer equivalent of hibernation, and occurs when reptiles, small mammals, and other organisms go into a state of dormancy to avoid the harshness of – what should more accurately be described as – the dry season. One super neat example is the lungfish, a fish that burrows deep into mud to survive summer droughts.

:: Bibliography ::

“Æstivate.” Oxford English Dictionary. 2007. 16 Dec. 2007 <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/findword?query_type=word&queryword=aestivate&find.x=0&find.y=0&find=Find+word>.